


Sea Water Fevers

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fever, Headaches & Migraines, Sick Character, Sick Fic, Sickness, stubborn lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 03:32:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11569413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: Birthday birthday!Happy birthday to my friendo @nothingwrongwiththerain!! You’re super duper, and I hope this fic is okay! I hope your birthday is as lovely as you are!





	Sea Water Fevers

When Lance and Keith crashed in the water, Keith was surprised to watch an inflatable raft pop out from Blue’s paw. The Lions sunk and ejected their paladins. Lance floated uselessly to the top of the water, and Keith’s heart pounded for a moment, thinking maybe he was injured until he saw him start to move.

He was swimming weakly, but he was okay. Keith doggy-paddled to the raft and climbed inside it, then pulled Lance in. Now sitting across from each other, Keith assessed the situation they were in–it sucked. Of all the people to be trapped in a raft with.

“I thought you said you were a strong swimmer,” Keith antagonized. Lance looked tired from just his short dip in the sea.

“I am,” Lance argued.

“You couldn’t even pull yourself into the raft,” Keith countered.

“Yeah, well… whatever.” It wasn’t typical for Lance to just give up like that, but Keith decided to let it slide. Lance looked exhausted, and they’d had a long day. “How long are we gonna be here?”

Keith shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “I’m sure Allura will send the others to come get us as soon as she realizes we aren’t responding on the comms, but it took us a whole day to get here, and without the castle’s wormhole system working, it could be a while.”

Lance seemed to deflate a bit, his shoulders sagging and his face falling.

“What should we do in the meantime?” While he didn’t especially want to play some kind of dumb game with Lance, it was better than sitting in silence, and growing up with a bunch of siblings probably taught Lance some pretty good car games.

To Keith’s surprise, Lance didn’t look devious or excited or really anything at all. He closed his eyes and sank into the raft a bit, curling up on one side. He was shivering, but that was to be expected–it wasn’t particularly warm here, and they’d just been in the sea. Maybe some water got into his suit.

“I’m gonna take a nap,” Lance announced quietly.

“Come on,” Keith prodded, “you can’t just leave me here alone. I’ll be bored.”

“Tough,” Lance muttered, “I’m tired.”

“What if something attacks? I don’t want to be on watch alone.”

Lance sighed but sat up straight. From this angle, Keith could tell that he looked a bit pale, and his eyes were struggling to stay open.

“Fine,” Lance finally agreed.

Keith expected more to the statement, but no further complaints came. Instead, Lance reached up and began to massage the place between his eyebrows, gently at first, and eventually more and more pressure built up until he was just digging his thumbs into his eye sockets.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked.

“Headache,” Lance murmured, not bothering to look up.

Keith frowned. Lance probably needed water–they both did if he was being honest. The creeping, dull pressure of a dehydration headache was beginning to set in behind his own eyes, as well, but he was clearly not as bad off as Lance, and the sea water wasn’t drinkable. Surrounded by water and dehydrated. It was almost funny. Keith wished he could do more than nod.

Games became less of a concern to Keith, but keeping Lance awake and alert was still a challenge he felt he had to undertake. He still wanted to sleep, but Keith had a feeling that wasn’t wise–he needed to be able to keep an eye on his condition. Not that there was anything he could do, but still, it felt important.

The icing on the cake was when it started to rain. Unlike on Earth, where rainwater was safe to drink, the rain here was unfamiliar and alien, and he didn’t trust it. As much as he wanted to open his mouth and fill it with fresh water from the purplish clouds, he restrained himself.

Lance seemed to have a similar sentiment about the weather. He had pulled his knees close to his chest, still shivering, and looked honestly pitiful. Keith wanted to tell him to buck up, but couldn’t bring himself to as Lance’s shoulders started to shake in a way that was clearly from more than just the cold.

“Lance?” Keith tried slowly, “everything okay?”

Lance nodded but didn’t look at Keith, his head buried in his crossed arms.

“How long til we go back to the castle?” Lance repeated. For some reason, it made Keith’s hairs stand on end. Something about the pinched tone of his voice, the orangish hue that it held, the desperation didn’t sit right with him.

“I told you already, it might be a while,” he reiterated. “Seriously, are you okay? Are you homesick?”

Lance hesitated, then shrugged, then looked up. The first thing that struck Keith was the red flush to his face.

“Level with me, Lance,” he commanded in a no-nonsense tone, “what’s going on with you?”

Once more, Lance hesitated but finally sighed. He hung his head low and rested his forehead against his arms. “I don’t feel so hot,” he admitted.

That wasn’t what Keith was expecting.

“What, like, physically?”

Lance nodded.

“Are you seasick?”

Lance shook his head.

“Then what…?”

“M'tired,” Lance muttered.

“Yeah, you said that. Are you–?” On instinct, Keith reached out and touched his fingers to Lance’s forehead, wincing at the heat that radiated off it. “Oh, quiznak. Yep. That’s a fever.”

Lance pulled away and buried his face once more in his arms.

Sorry,” he mumbled, “M'trying to be helpful.”

Keith took a steadying breath. “Don’t worry about that,” he promised. “You should lie down.”

“You said I had to stay up,” Lance insisted.

“That was before I knew you were sick.”

“No,” Lance fought, “if somethin’ attacks, I wanna be here.”

“What do you really think you could do in this condition?” Keith asked. “Just get some sleep, okay?”

“No,” Lance argued again, “I’m staying up with you.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but finally gave in. “Fine,” he agreed. “But on my terms.” Lance nodded, and Keith turned him around so that he was situated sitting up against Keith’s body, nestled between his legs and head resting against Keith’s chest. “I need to keep an eye on you.”

“Kay,” Lance agreed, but Keith was pretty sure he had no idea what he was even talking about anymore, with a fever like that. Improvising, Keith tore off one of his fingerless gloves and dipped it into the cold ocean water, then rested it on Lance’s head, mindful that it didn’t drip into his eyes.

“That fever needs to come down,” he explained. Lance was already asleep in his lap, just as he’d expected. Keith could keep it under control until the others came and rescued them. At least, he hoped.


End file.
